A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004), and did graduate work in Musicology. He serves as choirmaster for the new FSSP parish in Los Angeles, where he resides with his wife and children.

A hymn verse need not be a complete sentence, but it must have completed sense as a recognisable part of the complete sentence, and at each major pause there would be at least a “sense-pause.” Saint Ambrose and the early writers and centonists always kept to this rule. This indicates one of the differences between a poem and a hymn, and by this standard most of the modern hymns and the revisions of old hymns in the Breviary stand condemned.
— Fr. Joseph Connelly

ROMTIME TO TIME, I help out at local parishes here in the city. I had to stop playing organ at the Cathedral when I became a father.

Anyway, at Mass this Sunday, the priest intoned the Gloria, and the choir and congregation continued. It was a truly marvelous effect! Somehow, this simple gesture reminded us in a powerful way that we — all of us together — are praying. It’s hard to believe what a beautiful effect it was, in this small, local parish where it occurred.

By the way, they sang the Gloria in honor of St. Anne Line (practice video).

If it’s not possible for the Priest to intone the Gloria, the choir or cantor can start. This is allowed in the post-Conciliar rubrics. If you don’t believe me, you can read the rubrics from the Ordo Cantus Missae (scroll down to Number 2). Bishop Peter J. Elliott agrees the preference is for the priest to intone the Gloria.

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